Otto I of Greece

Otto of Greece (1 July 1815-26 July 1867), formerly Otto of Bavaria, was the King of Greece from 1832 to 1862, succeeding John Capodistrias as head of state of Greece and preceding George I of Greece.

Biography
Otto was the second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and was descended from the House of Comnenus and House of Laskaris through his ancestor John II of Bavaria. When Greece became independent in 1832, the throne was conferred upon him due to his descent from Byzantine Empire noble families, with the goal of placing a Great Powers noble on a foreign throne.

With 3,500 Bavarian troops, he landed in Greece in 1832 and was ruled by three regents until he came of age; he was only seventeen when he was appointed as King of Greece. He got rid of his unpopular regents when he came of age to rule his country, and was an absolute monarch. Growing pressure to draft a national constitution forced him to create a constitutional monarchy in 1843, but he rigged elections with fraud and terror.

Otto's rule over Greece was weak due to interference by the great powers. The politics were manipulated by the countries of Great Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Ottoman Empire, and Sweden, the seven great powers at the time. Britain blockaded his ports in 1850-1854 to prevent him from attacking the Ottomans during their time of weakness in the Crimean War, and the economy failed. He was deposed while in the countryside and was replaced by the Danish prince William of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg, who took the name of "George I".